How to disable save dialog box using window form web browser.

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Im stuck, I been looking for an answer for days now and I cant find any answer that fits my requirements. I dont know how to do it. I dont have any code yet since I dont know if this is possible.

I have a user access on the website then there is a button that once I click the file it will download, and the save dialog box will display asking for a folder location. The file doesnt have a link or an address. I think its created in the backend once the excel button is click.

Now my question is, how can I download the excel file after I click the button excel without displaying the save dialog box using windows form web browser? Or if that’s not possible. How can I click the save button automatically on the save dialog box then automate the folder location.

What I have tried:

I tried researching and I still cant find the right code for my desktop app

Posted 6-Mar-18 2:13am

Cey P

Updated 7-Mar-18 1:52am

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F-ES Sitecore 6-Mar-18 8:26am

Are you automating a web browser control inside your desktop app? The only way you'll probably get this working is if you don't use the web browser control at all but instead request the file yourself using something like WebClient

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ez801hhe(v=vs.110).aspx

Obviously if that is possible depends entirely on the site you are automatig, *if* you're automating a web site, and a million other important things you haven't mentioned.

Cey P 7-Mar-18 3:53am

I’m automating the download excel file. Everytime I click the excel button the dialog box showed up. How can I disable it? If the web browser is not possible, then where should I do it so that the save dialog box will not show up but still will save the file on my local drive. By the way, the excel doesn’t have link.

F-ES Sitecore 7-Mar-18 4:02am

How easy this is all depends on the page you're automating, you can't force a download from a browser, that's never going to work. Instead your code is going to have to act like a browser and send the same requests to the same site and process the response in a way you want (ie save straight to disc rather than what the browser wants to do). I'd start by using something like Fiddler or the browser dev tools to see exactly what request is sent when you click the button and with what POST data, and emulate that using HttpRequest or WebClient.

Cey P 7-Mar-18 5:07am

When I right click or inspect element the button, it display the image of the excel button icon. It doesnt show the path or anything, it just the images of the excel icon. I can download the file by using the webbrowser.document.getelememtid(“button id name”) then used the webbrowser1.invokemember(“click”) but the save dialog box showed up. What should I do? Since the excel doesnt have url address. I need to automate the downloading of the excel file.

F-ES Sitecore 7-Mar-18 5:14am

You need to emulate what the browser is doing. When you click the button the browser makes a request to the server that gives the response which is the file to download. What you need to do is find out what that request looks like (using Fiddler, google it, it's a free app) and send the same request using code (via WebClient etc) such that you get the same response back. Forget the webbrowser control, you're never going to get what you want using that.

Cey P 7-Mar-18 6:12am

Thank you so much for answering. I will try that now and get back to you with the result. Thank you so much as in.

Cey P 7-Mar-18 7:07am

Im not sure if I found it since Im new with fiddler. I found the Content-Disposition: attachment;filename=FileStats.xlsx. That filestat is what Im looking for. Though im not sure how to use it or if this is really what I need. 😅

F-ES Sitecore 7-Mar-18 7:24am

That's the response, what you need to do is look at the request, ie what url was requested, what verb (probably POST), what data was sent in the request body, and what the request headers were too. If you POST the same data to the same url yourself with the same headers you should get the same response, ie the binary for the file as a stream that you can then save.

Cey P 7-Mar-18 8:10am

How would I know using fiddler that was im looking for? That if I see it I would know already?

F-ES Sitecore 7-Mar-18 8:42am

If you can't tell already then trial and error. Try and send the exact same data to start with and go from there. If they have tried to protect the download in some way using session keys or other tricks then it may be more complex still as you might need to send them something they embed in the download form. There is no one-size-fits all answer, it all depends on the specific site you are trying to download from.

Cey P 8-Mar-18 0:49am

I dont know if my url request is correct.

I tried the code below but received this error: "The remote server returned an error: (401) Unauthorized."

string url = "https://abc.domainsite.com/Claims/EDI/EDIClaimsDashboard.aspx";

NameValueCollection data = new NameValueCollection();
// data.Add("__EVENTTARGET", ""); // you can add any post data as needed
data.Add("ctl00$PortalMasterContents$Img_Excel_Lst", "Download"); // this simulates the button click

using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
{
byte[] result = client.UploadValues(url, data); // UploadValues triggers a POST
File.WriteAllBytes(@"C:\test\FileStats.xlsx", result); // save the response to the temp folder

Cey P 8-Mar-18 0:56am

Here is the fiddler HexView
POST https://abc.domainsite.com/Claims/EDI/EDIClaimsDashboard.aspx HTTP/1.1
Host: abc.domainsite.com
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Length: 18034
Cache-Control: max-age=0
Origin: https://abc.domainsite.com
Upgrade-Insecure-Requests: 1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/64.0.3282.186 Safari/537.36
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,image/webp,image/apng,*/*;q=0.8
Referer: https://abc.domainsite.com/Claims/EDI/EDIClaimsDashboard.aspx
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate, br
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.9
Cookie: FedAuth=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; FedAuth1=eDQ9PC9Db29raWU+PC9TZWN1cml0eUNvbnRleHRUb2tlbj4=; .ASPXANONYMOUS=-G3EhOHo0wEkAAAAZjNhNjU1MTAtMzI1Yy00OGMzLTg4ODUtNDc2Nzk2OGRiMDIz3kqcsFUfa_040NrqkfPuwPDU2G01; BIGipServerabc_domainsite_pool=3396209162.47873.0000; ASP.NET_SessionId=zkwrpqgvsbbwlmtkwwdcky4h; UserToken=UserName=myusername; TimeoutWarningLastAccessTime=1520477970195

__EVENTTARGET=&__EVENTARGUMENT=&ctl00%24hdnPageTracker=&ctl00%24hdnCallLogData=&ctl00%24jsVer=5.5.282&ctl00%24menuSel=2968&ctl00%24defaultPage=&ctl00%24TreeViewSelectNodesCount=&ctl00%24HdnTreeViewSelection=&ctl00%24HdnPwdExpiry=Your+password+will+expire+in+*+days.&ctl00%24HdnSSOEnable=&ctl00%24HdnSSOURL=&ctl00%24HdnCallCenterMenu=BENEFITS%2CCONTRACTS%2CPROVIDERS%2CMEMBERS%2CCLAIMS%2CAUTHORIZATIONS%2CADMINISTRATION&ctl00%24HdnAboutToTimeout=2&ctl00%24HdnTimeoutCheckInterval=60&ctl00%24HdnPathName=2&ctl00%24HdnTimeout=60&ctl00%24UCHeader1%24HdnSSOEnable=&ctl00%24UCHeader1%24HdnSSOURL=&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnClientName=ABC&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSeriesCount=1&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnChartType=Pie&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24Hdn_Lst_Grd_Rowindx=&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnFlType_Rtrnd=W&ctl00%24PortalM

Cey P 8-Mar-18 0:57am

Here is the fiddler syntax view:
__EVENTTARGET=&__EVENTARGUMENT=&ctl00%24hdnPageTracker=&ctl00%24hdnCallLogData=&ctl00%24jsVer=5.5.282&ctl00%24menuSel=2968&ctl00%24defaultPage=&ctl00%24TreeViewSelectNodesCount=&ctl00%24HdnTreeViewSelection=&ctl00%24HdnPwdExpiry=Your+password+will+expire+in+*+days.&ctl00%24HdnSSOEnable=&ctl00%24HdnSSOURL=&ctl00%24HdnCallCenterMenu=BENEFITS%2CCONTRACTS%2CPROVIDERS%2CMEMBERS%2CCLAIMS%2CAUTHORIZATIONS%2CADMINISTRATION&ctl00%24HdnAboutToTimeout=2&ctl00%24HdnTimeoutCheckInterval=60&ctl00%24HdnPathName=2&ctl00%24HdnTimeout=60&ctl00%24UCHeader1%24HdnSSOEnable=&ctl00%24UCHeader1%24HdnSSOURL=&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnClientName=ABC&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSeriesCount=1&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnChartType=Pie&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24Hdn_Lst_Grd_Rowindx=&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnFlType_Rtrnd=W&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnFlType_Strnd=W&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSrchDt=0&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSrchFl=0&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSrchCl=0&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnRowIndex=0&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSrchFileStatIdx=&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSrchEdiDatidx=-1&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24HdnSrchClHtmlData=0&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24Rbl_Lst=0&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24Img_Excel_Lst.x=11&ctl00%24PortalMasterContents%24Img_Excel_Lst.y=13&__VIEWSTATEGENERATOR=E87709A2&__VIEWSTATEENCRYPTED=&__EVENTVALIDATION=MYL9PQ%2FPSdNoeXcJC1wMghsQcdmBL85cnGqrzgePsUaCTWdfm5zFM94FZLtOqNhmiYmDkQuBHQSZr11cKZTITq1EUmJLS6G36cieBEQIGQSdbnEgrcXSizl8zEDndZPHcTQ2PLgtTWV5cJX4ha4go%2BtHgBFH54gd2c7vnFW5fH369oUocq1Qem14MrB9nRe8IdWtecTV9m072vPom2Kx1kE%2F8nDipwFb10cxCELnPGBQIEzXF92vd02pMZer5Lth7BdfFd3x3MNS8R0N4KCkyGG%2BI9T%2BY86oOZom%2FsDIc08QEXRZpZHQvXYv1V3ocIGYBpFQ9yXwxpWLRS37KNZc6LAWI7%2F7st%2FqCSltnxxnRciTxYoBDLqHC%2F4ygWxA5w78Y9tXnsTrAxE6BJdTh4t129LuFv3EOvs%2BYYfzdqpfRIMsLyIrDtkxerm1FkGT6rOdovL3yLHnulRCCmKndAnqeNI%2FBBGQRQp9mA3aIZo2GNJLzixtfbmZ5phWOV3QBpnMv2celXp11uzuyV3pDqEqFach46syMGuIITWq4lf5HiWAtUu%2BZrEfeKXJzz87P13tAdsxqDNQ6HR6%2FX6gwVCwKO%2BytJPCdmmfQKjMn4N1ZL77E3YAr5X2C4OS7BcE3CCj0ADFnAOITxL6alUgmKsm6SAzfmVimb9VVcBL1ajmta9u6H%2FA0al0cR75jQJ81cwyw5jhim5QqXLJlHCQQgt1nD1Tvbjv96dRrcAf%2B7ooum7h92mUepWQRtS4kN1l%2FldQSp3ZZZfBKCXeZUnjMxDlywg%2BNK5SnvBowX3T9wqBTjiQOKxKlO5y5HUbKG76EvYowWS3Og8Y3IRZlhjKRt2ueS8xBsrTd1LWpf5xroK2rxNsvrSt4SldIfC7qg0rmNNxDoVYKAjBWSpuHHx%2BD1MVvjfVC%2FfG%2Bxod2iWHw045U188b%2FQsROqsBsOTLhWvI%2BNqqfAJ9trybx1Y%2FfalCTiQ6Yi0di5W0FkjIDWVb%2BpOCL3JI5PlxjdwcVnBWbJWvAMXUxAsW2%2FtZA%2BO6dzMlZdeSgzCfUJJqVlZK5%2FONNETlwPXM6GDg8CEpNYyZAtrhK4bWvaif9MpTuClmklJkITdIrNWoxPlLlfsHOoC5W%2BcXHGs5nM1%2B%2FbzWV3lgtje7ZVBiRZ0EDNXEv%2BSSpjnu7Mf4lxDaLDC30sWI74v0MXnYwd%2B3NuumQ%2BdBvB%2Bev1o5epHvak4JbLAN1t6o1tzVjpfpvPbYRNeBVf1meq5%2F94cQNNCWhFGV3oAXDUbBFgVD3cbVaHi4Raqnx0vZD1UJnssjdFeYaH3FhWVi8A9h0xHoQtqZup2jizcGxrYb5RXKBI47l89S1nEl2k3DRq1HPltxyd%2Bz2GLq8WyxeuhCBggCxWfGJxkiWiGlARCLHMtj3tz7AdFAo8EzK7GstNIAKpe3g4ztGHvD0DKUokE2FJz8vsoKDcW97Av%2BdpJNUOlFd5lrYnrHRIvHFLsmKC9uk%2FMO5WENHsCfVhKUDztsKhknS1x75Ergbk%2BhI7QakYcaXflsEoZeeSYMSDao0NegzZc6ObUVkKhc0UJuylQV%2FPauKY1bp8Wn3cPxiVHPsbavPr%2FrEyK74FF2eIh6BGjGCyVOG0tc9Py9GiPYDAynV0SR7AloETAZgvL0lqlvbcisdDYW1NT6o1oyYRglDRPen7D4QYhb3mQiIDBHe%2B%2BszV0vrjf0OM6meYeTwr5C7PtVGTVKqAp644kzl0A7cKnCYfE2geHCyaBqMSkjS2UgqUKIs37tHrEYD1zDjcbRBPc1NaYeeBlhYNVrD%2FdAUkYQTez4faRyRgDrm00dQA0WI%2BrXKeyljIDpNi8dOdxwKI1JhuIgLi2%2BUXeWX%2B5%2FYUGUVCXj95P27a6ECteyrxY1kYrMXK2jFfN0zNy5HCxDjAU4tFFSE7JhchwiC6FGzheI%2FbXYDBDFppjIhUCYHvyv%2B7FTU4oHdlHWIQ0uYFhYAfbss516lUzBxwVcdf%2FPbvfPJZ1fYxXVHMOSYTPne2znLCXxdQOpWs%2B5todoqnQDf8V20eD%2FQnNkh%2BMN3aVRRFgTVy9BYJP9mrLJZJep9fPCn405XIugHqBQxVyEuISF7ZqbIvlfNW8lS7wy3uAx7avnsYMIF3YucDuP185mCmiRJxtjKlPY2BwL4iKq5n2wyKkHHZpXROVG7agV7zFc2ZAPrdUJrJadD6HGVJWbBHOVZbMEVaUuhjA&__VIEWSTATE=HOrFut2JKiM0JDPxZXeDgd9h7xsJkDn05owgP38uGwt

Cey P 13-Mar-18 5:28am

F-ES, I'm having the 401 unauthorized error message. Can I still use the code below even I dont have access to the server? Just view access only?

F-ES Sitecore 13-Mar-18 6:08am

If you're getting a 401 you're going to have to work out exactly what headers or cookies you need to send that are going to make the site consider you a valid user. That will depends on what security mechanisms they have in place. It's going to involve actually understanding the mechanism they use so you know what to send them to consider you valid. I'd start by sending the "Cookie" header that contains the FedAuth data and see if that works. Worse case scenario you might have to programatically "log-in" to the site too to be given an updated FedAuth token to send if you can't just re-use the one you have (it might have an expiry attached to it for example, it might be tied to an IP address, again I don't know, it all depends on what the target site is doing to handle auth, there is no one-size-fits-all solution)

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F-ES Sitecore · Answer 1 · 2018-03-07T01:53:00

If my download page is like this;

<asp:Button ID="btnDownload" runat="server" Text="Download" OnClick="btnDownload_Click" />

code-behind

protected void btnDownload_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string path = "~/files/pic.png";
    Response.Clear();
    Response.Buffer = true;
    Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", String.Format("attachment;filename={0}", Path.GetFileName(path)));
    Response.ContentType = "application/octet-stream";
    Response.BinaryWrite(File.ReadAllBytes(Server.MapPath(path)));
    Response.Flush();
    Response.End();
}

So clicking the download button causes the code to write the files/pic.png file to the client and it triggers a download in the browser. If I look at the request in Fiddler it is to this url

http://localhost:50725/Default.aspx

and the post data is like this;

__EVENTTARGET=&__EVENTARGUMENT=&__VIEWSTATE=D2GscibKx2pwUA ...

That's the form values on the page. The important bit of post data is the bit that tells asp.net that the download button has been clicked, that's this

ctl00%24MainContent%24btnDownload=Download

If I view the source of my page I see my download button is called "ctl00$MainContent$btnDownload" (it's using master pages ergo the weird name). So I want to POST to that url with that in the post data and that will make asp.net think the request has come from a browser clicking the download button, so I just grab the response and save it to a file;

string url = "http://localhost:50725/Default.aspx";

NameValueCollection data = new NameValueCollection();
// data.Add("__EVENTTARGET", ""); // you can add any post data as needed
data.Add("ctl00$MainContent$btnDownload", "Download"); // this simulates the button click

using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
{
    byte[] result = client.UploadValues(url, data); // UploadValues triggers a POST
    File.WriteAllBytes(@"c:\temp\download.png", result); // save the response to the temp folder
}

I'm using a png file but it doesn't matter what the file is, this will work for Excel files, EXE files, any binary data.